#it is my goal to make a poll so impenetrable

[j0sgomez-blog]

Dawn at Quiet Lake in Idaho’s Cecil D. Andrus-White Clouds Wilderness, created in 2015.

By Michael Lanza

How’s it feel to be a conservationist in America today? Does it feel like people who want the government to protect the environment—which is a large majority of Americans—suddenly find themselves losing a war that it seemed we had already won?

These are strange and frustrating times for conservation. We have to wonder: How could so many Americans believe that climate science is bogus—or even a “hoax,” as a certain world leader calls it? How could so many of our countrymen and women applaud as the current White House takes an axe to the agency created four decades ago to protect the very environment we live in? Or buy into the corrupt notion that ceding control of our prized public lands to private interests could, in any way, be in our public interest?

And where do we go from here?

Somewhere along the line, logic got turned on its head. We need to stand it upright again—and we can.

  The Bears Ears buttes in Bears Ears National Monument, which President Trump shrank by 85 percent.

The good news is that while we are, in many ways, mired in a war for the future not only of conservation but for the nation’s values—not to mention human civilization—environmentalists do have a much larger army than the opposition. Gallup reported in March 2018 that “62 percent of Americans say government is doing too little on the environment,” the highest that number has been since 2006.

The same poll found overwhelming majorities want more public investment in renewable energy, higher pollution and auto-emissions standards, and stronger enforcement of environmental regulations. Seven in 10 Americans believe climate change is happening and six in 10 want the government to do something about it.

  Hi, I’m Michael Lanza, creator of The Big Outside, which has made several top outdoors blog lists. Click here to sign up for my FREE email newsletter. Subscribe now to get full access to all of my blog’s stories. Click here to learn how I can help you plan your next trip. Please follow my adventures on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube.

But the anti-environmental movement is very well funded—with the climate-change misinformation campaign led by the fossil-fuel industry and related special interests—and has massed its troops in elected positions from Congress to state capitols and local offices.

They are dismantling the protections created over decades to ensure that Americans can breathe clean air and drink clean water, and protect endangered species. They are working to undermine the international effort to combat climate change. They are abetted in their self-serving scheme by a president who embraces no ideology beyond self-aggrandizement, and who has mastered the dark art of sowing division and discord through stoking the fires of fear and hate—all in the service of increasing his own profit and power. And he is enabled by a congressional majority willing to deploy un-American tactics to achieve their goals, like actively preventing some citizens from voting, and extreme gerrymandering of districts so that politicians get to select their voters rather than the other way around.

  Lower Yellowstone Falls in the world’s first national park, Yellowstone.

Among many moves to roll back progress on climate change, the Trump administration has taken steps to allow increased emissions of methane—one of the most powerful greenhouse gases—to weaken car pollution rules, and to let states set their own rules on coal emissions (or no rules at all). The administration hires ex-lawyers and lobbyists for polluting industries to regulate those industries—the proverbial fox guarding the henhouse. Trump’s Interior Department under Director Ryan Zinke has rescinded an Obama-era policy requiring that national parks management be based in science.

This NY Times story lists 76 environmental rules Trump is throwing out, and concludes: “All told, the Trump administration’s environmental rollbacks could lead to at least 80,000 extra deaths per decade and cause respiratory problems for more than one million people.” That story goes on to quote a Harvard expert saying that number is likely to be “a major underestimate of the global public health impact.”

This is what an all-out war on the environment looks like. It’s enough to really piss you off, right?

Climate change constitutes, literally and figuratively, a steadily rising tide that threatens to overwhelm civilization. The science not only continues to affirm this reality, it strongly suggests that we are on a faster trajectory toward increasingly severe consequences than previously thought.

  Read about how climate change is affecting our national parks in my book Before They’re Gone—A Family’s Year-Long Quest to Explore America’s Most Endangered National Parks.

  Backpackers hiking through a burned forest in Glacier National Park. Climate change has made wildfires larger and more numerous.

The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned recently that we have until 2030 to slash carbon emissions by 45 percent, and until 2050 to eliminate all carbon emissions. Otherwise, we condemn our children, grandchildren, and generations for centuries to life on a planet undergoing catastrophic climate change.

Many of us followed a long path through the outdoors that led us into conservation. We are motivated by a love of hiking, climbing, fishing, backpacking, skiing, paddling, hunting, birding, and other pastimes that have given us some of the most inspirational and joyful moments in our lives. Pull back the covers on the phrase “conservation movement” and you simply find people who share simple, common values: protecting places in nature that give us a rejuvenating connection to our humanity, and maintaining a world environment in which humans can thrive and live healthy lives.

History will recall this era as a dark time when some leaders showed a ruthless and shameless willingness to destroy the planetary environment that sustains life as humans have always known it.

But we have the opportunity to ultimately record this period as the time that the conservation movement became reinvigorated and rose to the challenges we face today. Many organizations and individuals are engaged and committed to this mission. The technology exists to accomplish this; we need only the political will, and that begins with each of us.

Here are some ideas for getting back on the right track.

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  Backpackers on Clouds Rest in Yosemite National Park.

No. 1 Vote in Every Election

Voting represents the bare minimum effort we are all asked to make as citizens of what has been and could still be—if we’re ready to save it—the nation that leads the free world.

Voting is not a big ask. It’s not a heavy lift. In fact, we should all participate in the democratic process more deeply than merely voting.

The Teton Crest Trail in Grand Teton National Park.

We should certainly seek to inform ourselves thoroughly through a variety of legitimate sources in the media and elsewhere. Knowledge and accurate information offer the best protection against the demagogues, charlatans, and liars who employ today’s vast array of communication tools to foment the fear, intolerance, and hate that seem to motivate so many voters now. We don’t need impenetrable walls along our borders—we need virtual windows onto our entire world, through which we can see everything more clearly.

Just as we have a choice in how we drive a vehicle—we can drive it intelligently and with care and caution, or steer it over a cliff—we can use the infinite resources available at our fingertips today to make ourselves better-informed citizens, rather than pawns of the purveyors of misinformation.

But voting is step one on the stairway of democracy. And yet, millions of Americans do not vote—they do not contribute the bare minimum effort as a member of a democracy. Some, including young people and populations already marginalized, only vote occasionally, typically in presidential elections, skipping mid-terms that determine the crucial makeup of Congress and key state offices.

Think of it this way: There are 10 houses on your street, but only the owners of six of them make all the rules for the neighborhood, including how much you each pay to live there (and they charge others more than they charge themselves), because the owners of four houses don’t vote.

Sound like a good system?

If not, then get out and vote and urge everyone you know to do the same—especially anyone who’s never voted or does rarely, including young people. Tell anyone who complains about the cynicism in politics that they have the power to do something about it, beginning with their vote. If everyone eligible voter in America cast a ballot in every election, we’d be well on our way to having a functional democracy.

  Plan your next backpacking adventure in Yosemite, Grand Teton and other parks using my expert e-guides.

  Sahale Glacier Camp in North Cascades National Park, one of my 25 favorite backcountry campsites.

No. 2 Choose to Live More Sustainably

Yes, it sometimes seems the solutions to climate change and other environmental problems lie far beyond our reach as individuals. But we can all do more to reduce personal waste and consumption, and that exerts a positive collective impact.

We can make choices about lifestyle and family and work circumstances that affect our waste and consumption. A few examples of many possible steps include reducing car trips and driving an economical vehicle, being more careful about electricity and water use, buying food grown and produced as close to your home as possible and planting a vegetable garden, recycling and reusing, and composting home organic waste. Larger steps like improving house insulation and converting to solar create expense up front but pay off over the long term.

The Center for Biological Diversity lists these 12 ways to live more sustainably, but you can easily find much more information on that subject. Some actions are big and costly, others have long-term, significant impacts and save you money.

But the best news about living more sustainably? Instead of making you pissed off, it can make you happier and healthier and improve your life. When I gave my wife a cruiser bicycle for Christmas a few years ago, her attitude toward biking rather than driving local trips swung 180 degrees. Now we frequently ride into town, which creates time together that’s far more enjoyable than driving in traffic and searching for parking—not to mention far better for our community.

  Backpackers on the Piegan Pass Trail in Glacier National Park.

No. 3 Get Off Your Butt

Actions speak louder than bitching on Facebook. If you’re truly pissed off, do something.

Volunteer for and donate to political candidates and campaigns you like and respect, who you believe can help our world—or your little part of it—rather than harm it. Or even run for office and be an agent for change.

Find organizations that do work you support and offer them your time and resources. Join a board; many groups are desperate for intelligent, committed volunteers who bring a variety of expertise to the table. I’m no genius, but for years I’ve served on volunteer boards and committees working on protecting and managing conservation and recreation lands, improving public education (smarter kids make smarter voters and citizens), and electing pro-conservation politicians. (I’m on the board of Conservation Voters for Idaho, which has resounding success electing green candidates in a very red state and deserves your support.)

Step up. You might be surprised at how many people would love to have whatever you can give.

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  Backpackers in Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, which Trump cut in half.

No. 4 Do What Jesus or Muhammad or Buddha Would Do

Religious leaders are increasingly joining the rising chorus of people who believe the world’s governments have a moral duty to protect the environment and take aggressive action to limit the severity of climate change.

In September 2017, Pope Francis and Orthodox Christian leader Patriarch Bartholomew called for a collective response from world leaders to climate change, saying the planet was deteriorating and vulnerable people were the first to be affected. Other religious organizations are investing directly in projects that protect the planet, such as renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, and forest protection.

As well they should. Jesus said, “For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul?” The Prophet Muhammad said, “Conduct yourself in this world as if you are here to stay forever.” The Buddha said, “I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act.”

  Planning your next big adventure? See “America’s Top 10 Best Backpacking Trips” and “The 20 Best National Park Dayhikes.”

  Bighorn sheep in Glacier. Click photo for 10 Tips for Getting a Hard-to-Get National Park Backcountry Permit.

No. 5 Please, Don’t Give Up or Give In

It’s easy to feel defeated. It’s hard to make things better. And it’s not enough to just be pissed off. Consider how much is at stake. I’m reminded of that every day when I look at my kids.

There are many reasons to be optimistic for our future. I’m encouraged by the efforts of politicians at the state and local levels and businesses committed to a sensible future in an economy built upon clean energy—the only future. California has committed to meeting 100 percent of its energy needs by 2045. Thousands of cities, regional governments, investors, and corporations have pledged to reduce their carbon footprint, motivated in large part by Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of the international Paris climate change agreement.

I am encouraged by the energy, intelligence, and determination of today’s young people. They don’t wallow in fear and despair. They aren’t mourning the planet’s future and lamenting that climate change seems so gigantic and daunting a problem that any action feels futile. They are acting. They are educating themselves. They are demanding leadership.

Larch trees reflected in Rainbow Lake, in Washington’s North Cascades.

But those of us in the generations now running the show—who are responsible for much of this problem—have to hand them the tools to help them complete the most important work humanity has ever faced. We have to give them a fighting chance.

If we fail to right our ship, then we will deserve it when today’s children look at us in the fast-approaching future, as the oceans drown cities and starvation and political instability spawn refugee waves unlike anything we’ve ever seen in history, and ask, “What were you thinking?”

I’m reminded of three quotes that speak to the time we live in now. The first has been described as an Aboriginal proverb but also attributed to various sources: “We do not inherit the planet from our ancestors, we borrow it from our grandchildren.”

The second is a quote that has been attributed to the Irish philosopher, statesman, and parliamentarian Edmund Burke: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”

Finally, we might all find inspiration in the words written by a young girl while she suffered through the worst evil the world has ever known. Anne Frank famously wrote: “It’s a wonder I haven’t abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.”

We have no other choice. We cannot fail, because failure now means giving up on hope.

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I spent a lot of time writing this story, so if you enjoyed it, please consider giving it a share using one of the buttons below, and leave a comment or question at the bottom of this story. I’d really appreciate it.

  Read about one great American adventure that’s possible today because of the conservation movement in my story “Why Conservation Matters: Rafting the Green River’s Gates of Lodore.”

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Rise of the UX writer

Image credit: momentumdash.com

Right now is a very interesting time to be a copywriter in the UK. As an industry, copywriting seems to be going through something of an identity crisis.

Image credit: dma.org.uk

On the one hand, you have the copywriting old guard: extremely skilled and experienced craftspeople who cut their teeth in the Golden Age of Advertising, or have followed in the footsteps of those who did.

Joy for these venerable wordsmiths is in delivering a piece of longform copy powerful enough to change a person’s entire worldview while they’re sitting at a bus stop. Or crafting a one-line zinger so taut and on-the-money it can cause a giggle-fit in a library.

Image credit: dma.org.uk

On the other hand you have the new generation of copywriters. Weaned on tales of the Golden Age, but presented with a drastically changed landscape, they’ve had to adapt to a completely different way of working: more platforms, more knowledge, less trust and less time.

Joy for these multimedia multitaskers is in hits, dwell time, shares, trends, virality and any other measure of effectiveness.

One side bemoans the other’s lack of craft and creativity, the other side can’t believe the first ever had it so easy.

And that’s just the view from the inside.

A 2015 DMA poll found that copywriters on the whole aren’t happy. 54% cited a lack of respect in the industry for the value of copywriting, while 28% believed that if a project’s budget were to be cut, copywriting would be the first role to go. Veteran copywriter Tony Brignull (pictured above) even went so far as to say that ‘Copywriting is dead’.

But why? There’s never been a greater need for copywriters. With the rise of voice user interfaces like Amazon’s Alexa, conversational UI and chat bots, AI and machine learning, and automated phone services, the whole industry is looking for ways to have better quality, more cost-effective dialogues with users.

These kind of information exchanges need skilled narrative and conversational designers — specialists in language and communication.

It’s an open goal for copywriting talent.

How did we end up here?

How is it that copywriters now feel pushed out of the conversation and relegated to the kiddies’ table? To understand, I think it’s useful to compare how the disciplines of copywriting and design have evolved quite differently over the last few decades.

As we touched on above, ‘copywriting’ today is such a broad term neither those within it nor those on the banks of it know quite where its edges are. A single role can include:

print advertising and marketing

digital advertising and marketing

TV advertising and marketing

social media and community management

technical writing

web content writing

video and voiceover scripting

content strategy (in the absence of a content strategist)

Just these few examples represent an enormous and insurmountable skillset for just one role, especially given how quickly the digital landscape can change. Ultimately this leaves your average copywriter spread very thin — a jack of all media, master of none.

So let’s park ‘copywriter’ for a moment and look at the other specialisms in commercial writing.

On the whole, they tend to be defined by subject matter. For example:

finance writer

legal writer

property writer

non-profit writer

corporate or business writer

This, of course, is a good thing. These industries are rife with technical terms, impenetrable jargon, obscure legalese and unique ways of working. They need subject matter experts who are also brilliant communicators to break down the acronyms and steer readers of all backgrounds through it.

But compare this to design as a discipline.

What was once simply known as ‘graphic design’ has split and split again into a huge range of specialisms. For instance:

visual designer

artworker

illustrator

UI designer

UX designer

graphic artist

web designer

app designer

games designer

illustrator

3D animator

photo retoucher

That’s without even touching development as a form of design. Which it is.

But consider these roles for a moment. They aren’t defined by subject matter, like copywriting, but largely by platforms and processes. They’ve evolved as a direct response to emerging technologies and user behaviours. Crucially, they’ve also evolved in parallel with developer tools and workflows (as Sandijs Ruluks illustrates here).

This means better and better integration of workflows, language and resources between designers and developers — to the extent that processes like atomic design are now possible.

This is great news for service design. But in all this excitement… who’s watching the words?

Skills gap

In my experience, when it comes to delivering new online tools and services there is a large and obvious skills gap on most service design teams: there’s no one to champion language.

At the early stages of a project, it often falls to designers and developers to fill this gap and make do as best they can. This is not their fault. And it’s not fair on them.

The result is that, despite the team’s best best efforts, copy will always come second to design. So at what point does it become important?

All too often as a copywriter I’ve been brought in part-way through or even at the end of a design project. And usually with the same impossible brief…

Finesse the design

Firstly, if you’re bringing a copywriter onto a project to ‘finesse’ an already-agreed design solution, there’s a good chance your design is more broken than you think. Secondly, you’re presenting the copywriter with a lose-lose scenario.

Let’s say it goes to plan. The copywriter recommends some substantial, impactful changes to the design and they take no time at all to implement. The project gets across the line and everyone is happy. But the copywriter’s input remains nothing more than a footnote. Copywriting remains stuck at the kiddie table. Fair enough, you might think. And I’d agree. Except this scenario never actually happens.

More likely is that the copywriter doesn’t have time to make substantial, well-informed changes, or there simply aren’t the resources (or appetite) to implement them properly. It’s too late in the project. So either the project hits the skids, with the copywriter to blame, or it crosses the line with poor or inconsistent copy and, you guessed it, the copywriter to blame.

All of the above outcomes serve to continue eroding the perceived value of copywriters (we’re already unhappy, remember), when in fact it represents a fundamental misunderstanding of how to use them effectively.

How to start using your copywriter well

1. Understand the scale of their task

When thinking about copy for a digital design project, it’s easy to overlook quite how much there actually is. Bringing in a writer part-way through might seem logical. But consider the nuts and bolts of the UI more closely.

As well as the usual headers and body copy you’ve all sorts of hidden text and microcopy to factor in, such as:

contextual help and tooltips

error messaging

in-line validation

interstitial screen content

metadata

form fields

legal notices

UI animations

All of which can represent significant challenges when it comes to ensuring quality, accuracy, consistency and proper governance. A copywriter needs the time and resources to manage all of these effectively.

Nothing drags you out of a good experience like an ill-conceived error message.

2. Plug the skills gap

Designing a friendly, conversational UI without the help of someone skilled in narrative structure, language, nuance and persuasion is like trying to play ‘My Heart Will Go On’ on a tuba. A) It’s bloody hard work, and B) the audience may tap along, but nobody’s falling in love.

Every single user touchpoint and every piece of visible copy (including all the microcopy) is an opportunity to demonstrate your brand’s unique tone of voice and actively engage with the user and how they’re feeling at that precise moment.

On the day of your booking, AirBnB’s app pre-empts the question you’re probably opening the app to ask.

Are they angry? Help them resolve their frustration or give them somewhere to vent. Are they sad? Cheer them up or give them a shoulder to cry on. Are they anxious? Reassure them they’re doing the right thing. Are they excited? Give them a high five.

You cannot do this with visual design alone. It needs the right words, delivered in the right way, at just the right time. Great content happens when copy and interface work seamlessly together.

To achieve this as a service design team, copywriting needs a seat at the table, right from the start.

Barriers

What’s preventing copywriting from being an integral role in every service design team? I believe it comes down to four things:

Client understanding of the user and business benefits of good copywriting

Universal understanding of how to use copywriters effectively

Tools and processes to integrate designers, developers and copywriters

Platform-specific job titles for copywriters to clarify job specs and simplify recruitment

Copywriting isn’t dead

On the subject of point 4, earlier we touched on the enormous, soul-crushingly unachievable skillset required of a copywriter today, from print ad campaign concepting to in-app microcopy-writing. How did one role end up encompassing so much?

That is quite specific.

Perhaps in our arrogance we believed we could apply the same universal writing skills to any medium. Perhaps we’re a jealously elitist cabal that fears change. Perhaps we just don’t like saying no to people.

Either way, it’s meant that while an HR manager or recruiter can quickly find a suitable designer for a project, finding the right copywriter for a job is like searching for a needle in a haystack made of needles.

So perhaps it’s time we acknowledge that ‘copywriter’ as a descriptor is just too damn broad. What the industry needs are clearly defined specialists in platforms and processes that complement the specialisms of designers and developers.

One such specialist role is ‘UX writer’.

What is a UX writer?

The role of a UX writer is to craft and govern the verbal and conversational elements of a user interface. Working with UX designers, visual designers and developers, they weave business needs and user needs into an effective narrative structure that uses clear and empathetic language.

What does a UX writer do?

Here are just a few tasks to fill the billable day:

Integrate fully with design, development and client teams from the project’s outset

Adopt the same agile processes (if agile is your bag), workflows and delivery goals

Speak the language of designers and developers

Use the same collaborative tools (or at least, compatible ones) as designers and developers

Work with the delivery team to find verbal and visual narrative design solutions

Partner in user or audience research

Collaborate across the entire team (marketing, IA, project management) to improve copywriting and communication

Partner with content strategists to ensure the effectiveness, appropriateness and proper governance of language

Write amazing copy

Teach and empower others to write amazing copy

A UX writer doesn’t:

take all the copy worries away from the design and development team

work alone in a corner

berate people for grammatical infractions and drag the whole discipline into nazi territory

use page tables (at least exclusively)

Proof it works

I know what one of you might be thinking. Here’s yet another team member we now have to explain to clients — selling UX design is hard enough. We don’t have a workflow for this. We don’t know how to budget for this. It’ll never work…

Well it already is working.

On the west coast of America, UX writers are popping up in design teams for some of the world’s leading tech companies, from Google to PayPal. They’re already fixing the problem. (Kristina Bjoran has some great examples here).

And of course let’s not forget there are lots of agencies and organisations in the UK already employing highly skilled and talented copywriters as part of their design teams. They’re simply working under a range of job titles. ‘UX writer’ just gives their role some heft.

Benefits

So what can you expect as an outcome of having a UX writer on your team?

A more efficient design process: better results more quickly

More reliable user testing: prototype the complete design, not just the visuals

Less stressed designers: free to focus on what they do best

Better copy: no more second-guessing or copywriting by committee

Improved verbal and narrative design skills across the team

More detailed and collaborative style guides: not a forgotten document in a cupboard

Your move

So we’ve established there’s a problem with copywriting in the UK today. We’ve explored reasons why this may be the case and we’ve found a solution. The question now is: do you care enough to do something about it?

I’m talking to you, copywriters. And you, project managers. And yeah, you too, designers. This is a role that can’t work in isolation, but its benefits to the industry and design team as a whole are huge.

It needs early adopters here in the UK.

So what do you say? Let’s bring UX writing to these great and noble shores and show our US cousins a thing or two about UI design.

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Rise of the UX writer was originally published in Prototyping: From UX to Front End on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.